Colonel Henry Beekman inherited the large Beekman estate from his father, Hendrick Beekman.
Colonel Beekman married two different descendants of Robert Livingston
and Alida Schuyler. His first wife,
Janet Livingston, was the daughter of Robert's nephew, also, of course,
named Robert. Janet and Henry had a daughter,
Margaret, and then Janet died at the too early age of 21.

Two years later Henry Beekman remarried, this time to Gertrude Van Cortlandt,
the niece of the Manor Robert's wife, Alida Schuyler. Henry and Gertrude never had children.

To help with the running of his estate, and his political work as, essentially, ward boss for
Dutchess County, Beekman turned to his sister Cornelia's son,
Henry Livingston, Sr., our Henry's father. A great many
letters from Beekman to Livingston have been preserved and published in the
Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook of xx.

When Beekman finally retired from
New York government, he gave the nod for the two seats he controlled to Henry Sr. and to his son-in-law,
Robert R. Livingston, who built the Clermont estate,
but who is best known as the father of Chancellor Livingston.

When Henry Jr. was a young man, letters from his brother Gilbert
show that he spent the occasional winter at Beekman's mansion in New York City. Henry's first
cousin and Beekman's granddaughter, Janet Livingston, is also known to have spent extensive time
there. Janet became the wife of General Montgomery, under whose command Henry Jr. and several
of Janet's brothers traveled up the Hudson to invade Canada. General Montgomery died in that
expedition.

Joanna and Pierre Van Cortlandt married the year that Henry Jr. was born. They lived south of
Poughkeepsie on the Van Cortlandt Manor, which
Pierre had inherited as his part of
the huge Van Cortlandt estate. The house where Pierre and Joanna entertained George Washington is now a New York landmark, and is open to
the public.

Deeply religious, Pierre and Joanna kept a spare room in their home for traveling missionaries, such
as George Whitfield.

Pierre was a member of the Provincial Congress at White Plains
that gave New York's ratification to the Declaration of Independence on
July 9, 1776. He later became Lieutenant Governor of the State and, often,
Acting Governor during the war when Governor George Clinton mounted
military campaigns.

Gilbert Livingston Descendants, Kinkead
Gen. Van Cortlandt was an ardent patriot and made unusual sacrifices for his country. From 1768 he represented the Manor in the Colonial Assembly and in the later Council of Safety and of the Second, Third, and Fourth Provincial Congresses. In 1777, he was President of the Convention which framed the first constitution of the state under which he became the first Lieutenant Governor and George Clinton, Governor. He served in that office for seventeen years, declining re-election in 1795.

During the Revolution his Manor House, inherited from his father, was the object of Tory attacks and he and his family were obliged to seek safety in Dutchess County, the stronghold of his kinsmen, the Beekmans. In November 1783, he entered New York City with Gen. Washington after its evaculation by the British and he was an honorary member of the Society of the Cincinnati. The inscription on his tombstone reads: "He was a Patriot of the First Order; zealous to the last for liberties of his Country" (Harold D. Eberlein, Manors and historic homes of the Hudson Valley, 1924, pp. 121-25).

Stuyvesant Park
Peter Stuyvesant was the great grandson of the original Director-General of the Dutch colony of New Netherlands.
He inherited about 120 acres in the heart of Manhattan, some of which he turned to house lots.
The Stuyvesant mansion was situated with a view of the Hudson River.

Peter and Margaret built the house
at 21 Stuyvesant Street as a wedding gift for daughter Elizabeth and Major Nicholas Fish.
Their grandson, Governor Hamilton Fish, was born there.

Jacob Rutsen was an officer in the Miltia Regiment of Ulster and Dutchess Counties. He was
also Alida's first cousin, since he was the grandson of Henry Beekman
and Joanna Lopers. Which means that Henry's aunt was marrying Henry's uncle. The joys of
interbreeding.

For her next husband, Alida turned to Henry Van Rensselaer, marrying into the same family
as had her grandmother, Alida Schuyler, whose first husband had been Nicholas Van Rensselaer.
Rev. Van Rensselaer had been sent to the new country to manage the estate for his deceased brother Jeremias's children.
Henry Van Rensselaer was the grandson of Jeremias, his father
Hendrick having been a younger
son who inherited Claverack,a 60,000 acre estate later called the Lower Manor, and 1500 acres at
Greenbush. But Henry was a third son of Hendrick, so he didn't seem to have inherited enough
to make a lasting impression on history, though he did, obviously, on Alida.